Pitches that never made it: Adventure Time Comics

I should pitch more stories. One of the toughest things to do, for me, is figuring out who to reach out to when pitching ideas. Comic book editors are generally very busy and are also not necessarily worried about things they could publish when they've got what they ARE publishing on their minds. But I do still try, even though it takes a lot of time and effort and doesn't always get a good response - or even any response, as if often the case.

Below is part of a story that I pitched to Boom! Studios when they were publishing their Adventure Time comics line. At one point, there were two ongoing Adventure Time series along with a number of miniseries from a number of creators. I was never able to crack the code to get in on the publishing angle of things, but here you can see my best attempt:

My friend and frequent collaborator Pietro drew the first two pages of this story, which was going to end with Jake falling asleep just as Finn wakes up. As always, Pietro makes anything look good, as these pages are just beautiful to behold.

Pitting pitches together is always a time consuming process, and when they don't work out, you're sometimes left with pages that will never see the light of day. But if I've got 'em - especially when they're for projects that no longer have a published comic to put them in - I might as well show them to you, all of my good friends on the internet. 

The new Yeti store on Etsy! And other blog updates!

I, uh, don't know why it took me years to do this, but I finally opened up an online store on Etsy! I suppose that I never felt that I had enough products to really merit managing one, but whatever the reason, I've got a new store that you can find at etsy.com/shop/teddyandtheyeti.

Naturally, what precipitated this was the "Weird Al" Yankovic Strings Attached tour. I worked on three official tour posters and, since they've been announced and released, people have been contacting me about buying them. Now they can buy them! And some people HAVE bought them! Look at that.

Along with the tour posters, I also have...well, some other Weird Al stuff that I've made over the past few years. I'm still considering what I should add with regards to comic books and the like, but for now, I at least have copies of the recently released Black Terror: Social Insecurity on hand as well as some enamel pins that went along with the campaign. The graphic novel is hefty enough to hopefully make it worth buying and paying for shipping (plus, perhaps you will like reading it). The shop is open! Hooray!

I've also updated this ol' blog slightly in recent days. Right under the header sits a few links - a few more than there used to be, as it turns out.

A while ago, I created a Tumblr account (just in time for people to stop using that platform), and I have posted some of my shorter comics there. I used to house some of them on one of the internal blog pages, but it just wasn't easy to read. So the Tumblr page has some of my comics stored and ready to view! Here's the direct link: teddyandtheyeti.tumblr.com

There's also a new link that takes you to one of the aforementioned internal pages, titled "publications and credits". I created this page not just so that I can remember what stuff I have worked on. Every year, the New York Comic Con professional badge application has a line that asks you what you've worked on before, as well as for a professional website. And I never feel like I'm putting my best foot forward in that (very) limited space. There's just not enough room to make a case for yourself if you're like me, someone who legitimately works in the comic industry, but doesn't have a lot of name recognition. So I made this page to list a lot of the things I've worked on to hopefully make a better case for myself in the future. I almost always end up getting a professional badge before the show, but it's not always an easy process.

So, hey, you can look at a semi-comprehensive publication list for myself if the mood ever strikes you late at night.

Oh, and there's also a Twitter link! You can click on that and see my Twitter page. I guess. If you want to. I talk about the Steelers a lot on there.

There's more for me to do to clean up this site a little more. The gigantic word cloud on the right of this page amuses me, so it can stay, even though it's a help to almost certainly no one. But a number of the other links and widgets are a bit outdated, and they need to be either updated or dumped. There are only a certain number of hours in the day, though (it's a mystery as to exactly how many, unfortunately), so those will take a little longer. Sometimes I think that I should just choose a new layout entirely for this site. But I fear change! So it stays for now.

Thanks for reading this, I guess! Back to Comic-Con pictures.

Visit Teddy and the Yeti on Tumblr!

I've been doing some spring cleaning with the website recently - removing broken links and trying to streamline things a bit. One of the things on this page that I've never been quite happy with is the "webcomics" link at the top of the page, which gets a lot of hits but isn't very user friendly. One of the problems as I saw it is that old entries get lost at the very bottom of the page and the dimensions of some of the pages weren't always big enough to easily read the comics, especially on a desktop.

I decided that it would be best to just scrap the entire page and load all of the comics that I feel like sharing onto a new, external page, and so teddyandtheyeti.tumblr.com is born!

There's still some work that I need to do on the page, with placement and other functional issues, but I'm happy enough with it at least to share the link and make it public. I'll be looking to do other things with it in the coming weeks, including following some other dang accounts and trying to drive a little bit of traffic to the page. One thing that I enjoy is the archive section, which serves as a way to compile all of the webcomics in a way that's easier to navigate that what was previously available. There's also an "ask me anything" tab which I'm sure won't fill my inbox with spam any time soon.

So if you're looking for the comics I've poster, the "webcomics" link at the top of the page now redirects you to Tumblr. I'm sure we've all been looking for a convenient site at which to view the Franks and Beans comic and that "Accordion Theory" strip, and now you have one.

Read "Black Terror: Wednesday at the Diner" by McClelland and Roberts for free!

It's kind of weird putting my own name in the title of one of these posts.  But I do it for the Google.

Recently, Rafer Roberts (he of FUBAR, Magic Bullet and Plastic Farm fame) and I put together a short comic featuring several public domain stalwarts from the Golden Age of comics.  World War II was almost 75 years ago, and the fighting members of that great generation, those who are still alive, are in their 90s at least.  Superhero comics as we know them today owe much of their existences to the WWII era, so I thought it'd be fun to write a story about a few survivors from the first age of superhero comics.

Superman obviously wasn't available, but many comics, now nearly forgotten, feature characters who have since passed into the public domain and are free for anyone to use.  Thanks in part to the Dynamite series "Project Superpowers", some of those characters have made their way back into the public spotlight, at least a little, notably the Black Terror and a few others.  Along with BT, I picked up the Silver Streak, Mr. Q, The Fighting Yank and the Martian Mentalist for this story about some old folks meeting for breakfast at a diner.

Rafer, of course, knocked the story out of the park with his attention to detail and his expressive characters.  The plan is to print this story in the back of an upcoming issue of Teddy and the Yeti, but for now we've posted it, in its seven-page entirety, online and free for anyone to read.

Check it out here: http://plasticfarm.tumblr.com/post/95728114187/black-terror-wednesday-at-the-diner-written-by

Spread the word, please.

Original "Thanos and Darkseid: Carpool Buddies of Doom" art by Rafer Roberts!

One of the highlights of this year's New York Comic-Con was getting one of the few physical copies of "Thanos and Darkseid: Carpool Buddies of Doom" by Justin Jordan and Rafer Roberts.  The book has been selling well on eBay even though you can view the whole dang thing online.  It's a fun story that features Dr. Doom doing what Doom does.

Last week, I browsed Roberts's online store via DC Conspiracy, and I walked (not literally) away with a page of original art from the story, which you can see above.  It came in today, so I thought I'd show it off.  It's a comic book blog.  This is pretty much what it's set up for.

Here's the finished art for the page:

I made the decision to buy the page because of, naturally, Dr. Doom.  Rafer has just enough Kirby in him (that sounds dirty) to draw a perfect homage to comics' greatest super villain.  All four pages of the story feature Doom, though, so I had to choose which one I wanted.

The cameos on page four made my choice for me.  The final page of the story features not only Dr. Doom, along with Thanos and Darkseid, but also two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...in their party van.  And there's Mr. Mxyzptlk, too!

The page also features...okay, I have no idea who these guys are.  Certainly these are deliberate inclusions, right?  Any help from the outside world?  I suppose I could just ask Rafer, but...

While I was shopping, I also picked up trade collections of Roberts's ongoing "Plastic Farm" series.  I got all three volumes for a great price.

This is a great addition to the collection.  The other three pages from the story are still available.  You (you!) should pick 'em up before I inevitably do.

Plastic Farm Tumblr: http://plasticfarm.tumblr.com
Thanos and Darkseid: Carpool Buddies of Doom: http://plasticfarm.tumblr.com/post/67356039004/the-second-thanos-and-darkseid-carpool-buddies-of
on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/THANOS-and-DARKSEID-Carpool-Buddies-of-Doom-NYCC-2013-Mini-Comic-JUSTIN-JORDAN-/131049594259?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item1e832a1d93
Rafer Roberts DC Conspiracy store: http://dcconspiracy.storenvy.com/collections/186424-rafer-roberts